Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I installed emacs by accident on my Linux. I got it installed, somehow. Maybe it is included in a software's package, (or is it a part of Ubuntu updates? I don't know).

I have heard that emacs is sort of text editors, just like Windows notepads. I tried to use emacs the first time, 2 days ago. Hmm. Looks bland. It looks like vim at first (I have used it before, 2 years ago, but now, I completely forgot vim's multitude of keyboard shortcuts). But actually, emacs is not vim. They are completely different. I thought that it is a strange text editor. Much stranger than vim, at first.

Ok. It is difficult to learn at first, with daunting multitude of keyboard shortcuts. But, at least, I can use it to work on my Pascal programming assignment in just 2 days of learning emacs (Task: Write a program that inputs two matrices of user-inputtable sizes, and then multiply them both, and display it *neatly* on the *terminal* screen, with numbers and, of course, lot of whitespaces). Emacs integrates neatly with the Free Pascal Compiler (after copying and pasting some emacs customization codes. I cannot program in Lisp)

It has many awkward keyboard shortcuts (such as Alt+Shift+1, Ctrl+x+b, or something like Alt+5+0+Shift+8). It is designed to be used with the space-cadet keyboards or at least full size keyboards. I use laptop keyboard.

But, lovely, it allows itself to integrate interactively with the shell. I tried to use the Ctrl+U Alt+| and then typing fortune | cowsay:

Also. Now, I don't need to go to wxMaxima while on emacs! Just invoke its back-end Maxima with emacs shell interaction (but I have to read some ugly equations in plaintext). It also come with variety of usable features such as calendar, calculator, and games.

I love those little emacsen! (emacsen /ˈiːmæksn/n. pl. of emacs) It's not just an ordinary text editor...

I heard that it is good and legally free. It is better to get free softwares (and OSes) than pirated ones.

My friends said, "Why Linux? Why not Windows?"

I always answer that kind of question with "I'm bored with Windows"

Yeah, I have read informations about Linux. Linux fans said that it is nicely customizable, flexible, and reliable. Meanwhile, Microsoft's pointed out (in 'Get the Facts') that Linux is insecure, difficult to use, and lacking 24/7 support. I disagreed.

Actually, I have used Linux for 3 years, (but not on my own computer). Until this minute, I do not have any feeling of preference of Linux over Windows or Windows over Linux, but I disagree with Microsoft's anti-Linux propaganda. I still like them both. They excel in different kinds of tasks. Windows is good for starters, and Linux is good for experienced users, because Linux is faster but slightly difficult to configure (It requires the user to learn the command line interface). But Windows is slower, and consumes more power, but more software compatibility.